South Korea’s imports of beer and other alcoholic beverages from Japan jumped in the January-July period from a year earlier, helped by a weakening yen, the customs office said Wednesday.
Beer imports from Japan soared 66 percent to US$37.8 million in the first seven months from $22.7 million in the year-ago period, according to data from the Korea Customs Service (KCS).
Japanese beer imports ranked first with $78.3 million in 2018, but they nosedived to $39.7 million in 2019 due to Japan’s restrictions on exports to South Korea of key industrial materials for the production of semiconductors and displays.
In 2019, Japan also removed South Korea from its list of countries given preferential treatment in trade procedures.
South Korea viewed the moves as retaliation against 2018 Supreme Court rulings here ordering Japanese firms to compensate South Korean victims of forced labor during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
The rebound in beer purchases from Japan is attributable to improv
ed relations between Seoul and Tokyo from last year after President Yoon Suk Yeol offered to resolve the forced labor issue by compensating victims on South Korea’s own without asking for contributions from Japan.
Japan also reinstated South Korea on its “white list” of trusted trading partners last year, about four years after the removal, in a move to improve the bilateral economic relationship.
In contrast, beer imports from China ranked fourth in the seven-month period due to the lingering impact of a viral video showing a man urinating into a tank at Tsingtao Brewery late last year.
On top of increased beer imports, Japanese whiskey imports rose 9.9 percent to a record high of $6.2 million in the seven-month period from $5.6 million a year ago, the KCS data showed.
Imports of Japanese rice wine sake also increased 3.3 percent to $14.3 million from $13.9 million during the cited period, the KCS said.
But the country’s overall beer imports fell 8.2 percent on-year to $119 million in the first seven mo
nths, with whiskey imports also down 10 percent to $143 million and wine imports down 16 percent to $263 million, the data showed.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
